My girlfriend and I almost started to read Go Ask Alice a couple of weeks ago, I read it about 6 years ago, I really liked it then. She got freaked out the last time she read it and didn't enjoy it as much. I started to read it but it started depressing me because of my current situation with some certain substances. But as it turns out, a good thing came out of it. I discussed with her about how I don't wanna read it because of my current situation & how it'd depress me, and she understood which started a discussion on myself getting the help I needed....so a week later, I went to my first NA meeting (voluntarily) and I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I'm going to try to make it to a meeting once a week. Been clean 9 days now, I'm very proud to say that.

And that's how a book that I only read 5 pages of the 2nd time helped me turn my life around. Heck, I might just give it away so maybe it'll help someone else.

~post of the century~"Well, you reached out to me too, David, and I'd be more than happy to fill Bgas's shoes. You don't need him anyway - some of us have the same items in our collections as he does and we're also much better writers. Spoiled brat....."-Mikie

"in this online beach boy community, I've found that you're either correct or corrected. Which in my mind is all in good fun to show ones knowledge of their favorite band."- punkinhead

My girlfriend and I almost started to read Go Ask Alice a couple of weeks ago, I read it about 6 years ago, I really liked it then. She got freaked out the last time she read it and didn't enjoy it as much. I started to read it but it started depressing me because of my current situation with some certain substances. But as it turns out, a good thing came out of it. I discussed with her about how I don't wanna read it because of my current situation & how it'd depress me, and she understood which started a discussion on myself getting the help I needed....so a week later, I went to my first NA meeting (voluntarily) and I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I'm going to try to make it to a meeting once a week. Been clean 9 days now, I'm very proud to say that.

And that's how a book that I only read 5 pages of the 2nd time helped me turn my life around. Heck, I might just give it away so maybe it'll help someone else.

Congrats!

I read Go Ask Alice my freshmen year of High School - I loved it (I was fascinated by the free-spirited culture the narrator led the reader through)....though looking back I completely ignored the whole point of the book.

Anyways, keep it up - substance abuse is no picnic, and the stronger you stay in the coming days the better off you will be. And 9 days is quite an accomplishment for any drug one is trying to quit, so again, congratulations!

The Beach Boys legacy is still being mortared to this day...it has a solid and unbreakable foundation of incredible songs that tower above most bands, yet some bricks are more brittle and ugly than others (even some bricks put down more recently)...thus is the nature of any entity that continues to exist. You are not defined solely by your good achievements in life, you're also defined by those unpleasant moments too. This law of life, thankfully, helps keep us all in check.

Rab - Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is... strange. It's concerned quite heavily with philosophy at times, and lots of hemming and hawing about the Nature of Things which makes for dense reading. The tone doesn't really endear me either, although I'm going to finish it as he's actually rather good at teasing out little narrative foreshadowing bits, although a 'plot' is by no means the actual point of the book. It might be your bag, but it's not really earning the slow and methodical route it's taking with me so far.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Such an epic and powerful book. Tolstoy paints a picture in words and every nook isn't forgotten.

Isn't it brilliant? I mean, obviously it is. But it is one of the few classics that, as and after you read it, you think it is underrated.

What translation are you reading? I ask because I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky one and loved it. I haven't read others of that novel by them, but there are several Dostoevsky and Gogol novels and stories I've read both from their translations and others, and for some reason, those two just strike gold with me every time. Or vice versa. Whatever.

The Beach Boys legacy is still being mortared to this day...it has a solid and unbreakable foundation of incredible songs that tower above most bands, yet some bricks are more brittle and ugly than others (even some bricks put down more recently)...thus is the nature of any entity that continues to exist. You are not defined solely by your good achievements in life, you're also defined by those unpleasant moments too. This law of life, thankfully, helps keep us all in check.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Such an epic and powerful book. Tolstoy paints a picture in words and every nook isn't forgotten.

Isn't it brilliant? I mean, obviously it is. But it is one of the few classics that, as and after you read it, you think it is underrated.

What translation are you reading? I ask because I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky one and loved it. I haven't read others of that novel by them, but there are several Dostoevsky and Gogol novels and stories I've read both from their translations and others, and for some reason, those two just strike gold with me every time. Or vice versa. Whatever.

Yep I am reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky one too. This is my first time reading any of their translations. I am really impressed. Almost done the book and I've been reading it since September. I'm sort of sad about this

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Such an epic and powerful book. Tolstoy paints a picture in words and every nook isn't forgotten.

Isn't it brilliant? I mean, obviously it is. But it is one of the few classics that, as and after you read it, you think it is underrated.

What translation are you reading? I ask because I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky one and loved it. I haven't read others of that novel by them, but there are several Dostoevsky and Gogol novels and stories I've read both from their translations and others, and for some reason, those two just strike gold with me every time. Or vice versa. Whatever.

Yep I am reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky one too. This is my first time reading any of their translations. I am really impressed. Almost done the book and I've been reading it since September. I'm sort of sad about this

Good choice. I read the PV translation of Anna Karenina and really enjoyed it. I also read their translation of Crime and Punishment, which was incredible. I have high hopes for their Brothers Karamazov which is on the shelf, waiting to be read.

Right now, I'm reading Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. A bit of a slog so far, but interesting enough to keep me from abandoning it for something better.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Such an epic and powerful book. Tolstoy paints a picture in words and every nook isn't forgotten.

Isn't it brilliant? I mean, obviously it is. But it is one of the few classics that, as and after you read it, you think it is underrated.

What translation are you reading? I ask because I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky one and loved it. I haven't read others of that novel by them, but there are several Dostoevsky and Gogol novels and stories I've read both from their translations and others, and for some reason, those two just strike gold with me every time. Or vice versa. Whatever.

Yep I am reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky one too. This is my first time reading any of their translations. I am really impressed. Almost done the book and I've been reading it since September. I'm sort of sad about this

Good choice. I read the PV translation of Anna Karenina and really enjoyed it. I also read their translation of Crime and Punishment, which was incredible. I have high hopes for their Brothers Karamazov which is on the shelf, waiting to be read.

Right now, I'm reading Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. A bit of a slog so far, but interesting enough to keep me from abandoning it for something better.

Thanks for the suggestion. I may just have to find a copy of either one of those! I have seriously fallen in love with Russian literature.

I have high hopes for their Brothers Karamazov which is on the shelf, waiting to be read.

It is amazing.

That's what I hear! I may have to get their version of The Idiot, because I really didn't care for that novel. It's possible no translation could endear it to me, but it's just as possible it was simply a case of a poor translation. Ever read PV's version of that one?

I have high hopes for their Brothers Karamazov which is on the shelf, waiting to be read.

It is amazing.

That's what I hear! I may have to get their version of The Idiot, because I really didn't care for that novel. It's possible no translation could endear it to me, but it's just as possible it was simply a case of a poor translation. Ever read PV's version of that one?

I've got to come clean: after having read some of their other Dostoevsky translations, I picked that one up ... and never finished it. Got about 2/3 through and just quit. Never returned to it. So for whatever reason, be it translation of novel itself, I can't get into that.

I have high hopes for their Brothers Karamazov which is on the shelf, waiting to be read.

It is amazing.

That's what I hear! I may have to get their version of The Idiot, because I really didn't care for that novel. It's possible no translation could endear it to me, but it's just as possible it was simply a case of a poor translation. Ever read PV's version of that one?

I've got to come clean: after having read some of their other Dostoevsky translations, I picked that one up ... and never finished it. Got about 2/3 through and just quit. Never returned to it. So for whatever reason, be it translation of novel itself, I can't get into that.

~post of the century~"Well, you reached out to me too, David, and I'd be more than happy to fill Bgas's shoes. You don't need him anyway - some of us have the same items in our collections as he does and we're also much better writers. Spoiled brat....."-Mikie

"in this online beach boy community, I've found that you're either correct or corrected. Which in my mind is all in good fun to show ones knowledge of their favorite band."- punkinhead

I have high hopes for their Brothers Karamazov which is on the shelf, waiting to be read.

It is amazing.

That's what I hear! I may have to get their version of The Idiot, because I really didn't care for that novel. It's possible no translation could endear it to me, but it's just as possible it was simply a case of a poor translation. Ever read PV's version of that one?

I've got to come clean: after having read some of their other Dostoevsky translations, I picked that one up ... and never finished it. Got about 2/3 through and just quit. Never returned to it. So for whatever reason, be it translation of novel itself, I can't get into that.

The Idiot is my least favourite Dostoesvsky.

Ha! This is great news! Because if you look at any critical lists, or the lists of self-absorbed "I'm really well read, in an off-beat, hip kind of way" people on sites like Goodreads, they all list "The Idiot" as a masterpiece. I gave it two stars, considering it by far the worst piece of writing by Big D that I've read. And I've read The Gambler!

It's been 6 months since I read it, but man, I still remember the gratingly annoying and vacuous characters like it was yesterday. I can understand filling your novel entirely with hideously conceited, useless characters--kind of--if you at least treat them ironically. But I didn't sense any of it. I don't read thrillers, or James Patterson novels, but would it have killed Dostoevsky to move the story along a little better? The pacing was horrendous. Just parlor scene after parlor scene of bloated, sheltered Russian aristocrats' histrionics. Bleh. I was so let down since the concept of Mishkin was so great, and because Kurosawa was inspired so much by it that he even made a film version of it. But I hated the execution. It almost makes me angry to think about it. I can remember how difficult it was to pick that book up each time I wanted to read it. Felt like it weighed a ton.

The Idiot reminds me of Sgt. Pepper's: some universally revered work that leaves me cold, plucked out of a large corpus of truly great work for reasons completely unknown to me.

Now I have gotten done Tolstoy I would like to add I was so sad to end Anna but the end of it was so confusing! My one professor is right: it is like two different books at times. Now it's onto reading Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

Now I have gotten done Tolstoy I would like to add I was so sad to end Anna but the end of it was so confusing! My one professor is right: it is like two different books at times. Now it's onto reading Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

He's right in more ways than one. I seem to remember reading that Tolstoy didn't originally envision "AK" as having the whole Levin/Kitty subplot, but added that after beginning work on it. I think he could have gotten a whole other book out of Levin, as he was such a well fleshed out character--mainly because he was essentially Tolstoy himself, I guess

Now I have gotten done Tolstoy I would like to add I was so sad to end Anna but the end of it was so confusing! My one professor is right: it is like two different books at times. Now it's onto reading Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

He's right in more ways than one. I seem to remember reading that Tolstoy didn't originally envision "AK" as having the whole Levin/Kitty subplot, but added that after beginning work on it. I think he could have gotten a whole other book out of Levin, as he was such a well fleshed out character--mainly because he was essentially Tolstoy himself, I guess

I just find it funny how Levin doesn't seem very affected by Anna's end. In fact, no one really is except Vronsky!